Return on Objective

by Barry Siskind

Looking at the return on your exhibit investment often has to do with monetary gains. But what if you are among the many exhibitors whose objective has nothing to do with sales?

Are these exhibitors doomed to a life of never knowing whether their exhibit program is yielding value? The answer is no. Corporate and not-for-profit exhibitors can enjoy a non-monetary value of their exhibition program if they know where to look.

The 2009 Center for Exhibition Industry Research study The Cost Effectiveness of Exhibition Participation reported that more than two thirds of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed with the following three statements:

Exhibitions increase corporate and/or brand recognition.
Exhibitions assist in gaining/retaining market share.
Fewer sales calls are needed with an exhibition lead because the decision maker was able to meet with staff at the exhibition.

The conclusion was that there is additional value to a show beyond the ability to generate leads. Exhibitors who focus on lead generation alone look for a return on investment (ROI). Exhibitors who focus on non-monetary objectives look for a return on objective (ROO).

Calculating ROO is a matter of taking the following steps:

Articulate your objective — Non-monetary objectives include such things as your ability to reinforce relationships with existing customers, introduce a brand message or create awareness. The trick is to think carefully about the primary focus of your exhibit.

Identify who the message is for — Except in the case of a highly focused show, rarely will one message be of interest to all the attendees at a show. It is important to create a profile of the person who will most likely respond positively to your messages.

Quantify — Matching a number to the objective is simpler once you have completed the first two steps. Your quantified objective now reads, “I want to introduce three key messages to fifteen senior buyers of large chain stores.” See how clear it can become?

Determine your performance indicators — You now need to ask the question “How will you measure the results?” The answer to this question is in your performance indicators, which are the tools you will use for measurement. Performance indicators can include such things as surveys, post-show Web traffic, or appointments with qualified buyers. Choose the performance indicator that makes the most sense for measuring the specific objective. When you change your objective, you may also need to consider changing the performance indicator.

Establish your benchmarks — Benchmarks are an important consideration with non-monetary objectives. Benchmarks provide you with an objective method of measuring improvement. Let’s say that your non-monetary objective is to reinforce brand awareness and you choose to measure it with a survey of booth visitors. Before visitors leave you should ask them a few pointed questions that will reveal their perception of your brand before they entered the booth and the change in their perception after the visit.

Let’s say that at a show you found an increase of 20 percent in visitors’ awareness of your brand message. The next time you go to this show you now have a benchmark which you can use when making changes to your display and your booth personnel’s approach. You might target to increase the percentage or leave the percentage the same but at a lower cost.

You may always have thought that there was real value in your exhibit program. Now you have a way to prove it.

Barry Siskind, president and founder of International Training and Management Company, is a trade show consultant, trainer, speaker and internationally recognized expert in trade and consumer shows. Over the past 25 years, Barry has traveled throughout the world working with thousands of public and private sector clients in virtually all industry groups. He creates, facilitates and delivers services to companies involved in exhibit marketing. Barry is also a best-selling author of numerous trade show business books including The Successful Exhibitor, The Power of Exhibit Marketing, Making Contact, Bumblebees Can't Fly, Eagles Must Soar and Powerful Exhibit Marketing. You can reach him at barry@siskindtraining.com.

(If your operating system does not support using a Print button,
simply use your Web browser's "Print" command instead.)